In many industries, pipes or pipelines are utilized to transport fluid over distance. A variety of pipe sealing apparatus, equipment and techniques have been developed to facilitate the construction, repair or replacement of sections of the pipe with the aim of, amongst other things, minimizing disruption to operation of the pipeline.
In some instances, the pipe sealing apparatus may include a split sleeve repair clamp having body portions which are secured about the pipe or pipe section and which are provided with seals which seal around the outside of the pipe. In other instances, the pipe sealing apparatus may include a pipe connector for connecting two pipes or pipe sections. As in the repair clamp, the pipe connector is provided with seals which seal around the outside of the pipe.
While repair clamps and connectors are used in many applications, there are a number of drawbacks with conventional repair clamp and pipe connector designs. For example, in order to restrain axial separation loads generated by fluid in the pipe repair clamps and pipe connectors may use locks or slips to grip the pipe or pipes. In order to activate the locks and the seals, in one construction a compression flange may be utilized to apply an axial compression force on the seals and the locks to urge them radially into engagement with the pipe. However, this construction places the seals between the locks and the compression flange which results in the locks being housed inside the pressure boundary created by the seals. As a result, the lock load on the pipe is unsupported, resulting in long locks to prevent high stress on the pipe. The internal pressure also acts in parallel to the lock on the clamp, which can generate very high separation loads. Conventional clamp and connector designs also suffer from being cumbersome, heavy and expensive to manufacture.